5G0 
Observations on Stercoral Colic, produced by 
Stercoral Concretions in the Horse. 
• IVl. Clichy, V.S , at Joinville. 
In publishing some observations on the balls, or concretions, 
called stercoral, my intention is less to attract attention to the 
nature or causes of these productions, or the symptoms by which 
they are accompanied, than to make known the good eliects of 
a medicament (tartarized antimony), which has not yet, so far 
as I know, been sufRciently employed in the treatment of this 
disease; and the administration of which, in my hands, has 
been followed by the happiest effects. 
I must premise some general considerations in as concise a 
manner as possible, on the principal results of my experience in 
this matter: particular facts will follow by way of illustration. 
Of all the maladies designated under the generic term, colic, 
next to those called inflammatory, stercoral colic is the most 
serious, and the most difficult to remove. It is so called from 
being caused by a mass of indigested food, which accumulates, 
and forms a ball of greater or less size and hardness, and which ' 
ordinarily is retained in the flexors of the colon, or in the cells 
of its floating portion, at a little distance from the rectum. It 
distends the yjortion of the intestinal tube in which it is found; 
it obstructs the passage through it; it arrests the course of the 
excrement; and produces an intense inflammation of that part, 
which soon runs on to gangrene, and death is not slow in ar¬ 
riving. As the continuance of these foreign bodies in a portion 
of the intestine excites permanent contraction there, on account 
of the irritation which they determine to that spot; and as this 
contraction (a true strangulation) is constantly found before the 
concretion; itfoliow's that w'e cannot do otherwise than consider 
this contraction as a powerful cause of obstruction. For the 
concretion once formed, and in some sort lodged there, the por¬ 
tions of alimentary matter, finding an obstacle to their course, 
are arrested there, and, collecting together, they increase the size 
of the concretion and the distention of the intestine. Thence 
arise irritation, inflammation, sphacelus of the strangulated por¬ 
tion of the intestine, complete obstruction, &c.; and a little 
afterwards death. It is evident in effect that the concretion 
does not form itself in a moment, and does not all at once ob¬ 
literate the intestine. At the beginning it opposes only a slight 
